Jerry McCoy Obituary

Jerry Lee McCoy passed into eternity on August 26, 2025, two days after his 85th birthday. He was surrounded by loving family members and hospice caregivers in his home in Williamsburg, VA. Jerry was born in Wolf Lake, IN, to Harold and Sylvelda McCoy. He grew up in Churubusco, IN, and lived there as a young adult after graduating from Wheaton College. He met his first wife, Janice, at Wheaton, and together they owned a farm in Noble County that they called Sycamore Spring Farm. Their two children, Heather and Christopher, grew up primarily on this farm, where the couple also raised cattle and offered their home as a farm vacation inn to people from all over the U.S. and at least four other countries. In 1985, after the children had graduated from college, Jerry and Janice moved to Virginia, where Janice had been raised. Over a period of 11 years, Jerry was the farm manager of the 10,500-acre Zachary Taylor presidential estate in northern Virginia called Meadow Farm, and later as a website designer for Colonial Williamsburg until Janice was killed in a head-on collision in 1996, and life changed forever for the grieving family. Sometime later, Jerry returned to Indiana to care for his ailing father and to make a new life in Winona Lake, IN. In 2002, a friend and colleague in Winona Lake introduced Jerry to Beverly Fields, with whom he married in 2003 and has been married for the past 22 years. In 2014, they moved to Williamsburg, VA, where they have been living during their retirement. Together, they blended a family of four children and became grandparents to seven grandchildren, and now have one great-grandson. During most of the past 22 years, Jerry worked as a professional large-format nature photographer. His work has won awards, been displayed in galleries in both Winona Lake and Fort Wayne, and has been featured in many friends' homes. It has also been chosen to adorn the hallways of a new doctor's office building recently built outside Colonial Williamsburg, where he has volunteered for at least six years. Additionally, he has volunteered at his beloved church, Williamsburg Community Chapel. He is survived by his wife, Beverly; his son, Christopher (Shannon) McCoy; his daughter, Heather McCoy; his stepdaughter, Tamie Parker Song; and his stepson, Herman Fields; his grandchildren, Caleb Slining, Katrina (David) Troyer, Tiffany McCoy, Juliana Fields, Tyler McCoy, Carissa McCoy, and Jacob Fields; his great-grandson, Deeks Troyer; and nephews, a niece, cousins, and their children. A funeral service will be held at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 4, 2025, at Sheets and Childs Funeral Home, Churubusco Chapel, with calling hours beginning at 9:00 a.m. Burial will follow at Christian Chapel Cemetery, Merriam, IN. Sheets & Childs Funeral Home has been entrusted with these arrangements.